Owner of Port Pirie and Hobart smelters seeks government intervention

The owner of metal smelters in South Australia and Tasmania has made a pitch for government intervention amid a 'strategic review' of the operations.

Transcript

00:00Metal processing company Neostar, which employs more than 1,000 people across two states,

00:09says it's in talks with the federal and state governments given the severity of challenges

00:14it's currently facing.

00:16Neostar currently operates two smelters, a lead smelter in Port Pirie and a zinc smelter

00:23in Hobart.

00:24The chief executive of Neostar Australia's parent company, Trafigura, has reportedly

00:29told an international business summit that operations have become uneconomical and they

00:35are subject to a strategic review.

00:38He also said that Neostar Australia should not be fully in private hands.

00:43A spokesperson for Neostar said government support is essential to improving the competitiveness

00:49of multi-metal smeltering in Australia.

00:53The company's struggles have already led Neostar to announce it would scale back production

00:58by a quarter at the Tasmanian smelter due to what it says is deteriorating market conditions

01:05and financial losses.

01:06Its pitch for government support comes only a month after the South Australian government

01:11tipped the financially troubled Wyella Steelworks into administration to ensure the plant could

01:17continue steel manufacturing.

01:19A South Australian government spokesperson says it holds meetings with Neostar to discuss

01:25its concerns and will continue to do so, but said to publicly disclose the contents of

01:32those conversations would not be appropriate.